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Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio-economic transitions that have occurred over the past decade. One area of research interest has been in developing typologies of non-metropolitan performance. The current paper represents an analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Census data aimed at analysing non-metropolitan regions based on their performance across a range of selected socio-economic variables. Using model-based clustering methods, this paper places non-metropolitan regions into clusters depending on the degree to which they share similar socio-economic and demographic outcomes. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the regional level. Differences between the clusters are analysed using graphs of 95% confidence intervals on the individual means for each cluster. The typology provides a useful framework with which to develop a broad understanding of socio-economic processes and performance across different spatial scales. Las grandes capitales y ciudades regionales de Australia muestran una gran variación en el modo en que se están adaptando a las transiciones socio-económicas que han sucedido durante la década pasada. Un área de investigación de interés ha sido el desarrollo de tipologías de rendimiento no metropolitano. Este artículo representa un análisis de datos del Censo 2001 del Australian Bureau of Statistics dirigido a analizar regiones no metropolitanas basándose en su rendimiento en un rango de variables socio-económicas seleccionadas. Usando métodos de cluster basados en modelos, este artículo agrupa regiones no metropolitanas en clusters dependiendo del grado en que comparten resultados socio-económicos y demográficos similares. Estos clusters forman la base de una tipología que representa el rango de resultados socio-económicos y demográficos a escala regional. Las diferencias entre clusters son analizadas usando gráficas con intervalos de confianza del 95% para las medias individuales de cada cluster. La tipología proporciona un marco útil con el que desarrollar un conocimiento más amplio de los procesos socio-económicos y rendimiento en diferentes escalas espaciales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports several issues and events related to economics in Australia. The South Australian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia invites all economists to attend the 38th Australian Conference of Economists (ACE) 2009 held in Adelaide, South Australia on September 28-30, 2009. The History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA) announces that the organization will already accepting applications for the 2009 (HETSA) Prizes award. The Economic Society of Australia has two publications entitled "The Economic Record and Economic Papers" and "Economic Papers: A journal of applied economics and policy."

This paper examines the idea of the university from the first-in-family enabling students' perspective. It provides an overview of the current crisis of meaning in scholarly commentary that points to a spectrum of meanings about the university. This spectrum ranges from the ancient imaginary of the monastic university as 'ivory tower' to the instrumental idea of the entrepreneurial university. The analysis then reports on the idea of the university in over 40 interviews and surveys of first-in-family enabling students who attended two large regional Australian universities in 2014. Their metaphorical understandings of the university constitute a powerful imaginary about what a university is and can do for individuals and the wider society. For many, the resolution of the individualistic passion for knowledge of 'ivory tower' studies and the commitment to the social and economic usefulness of the fully engaged entrepreneurial university can be found in the pursuit of the passionate career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is commonly recognized that social exclusion is a dynamic process, but it operates within well-established political, social and economic structures. A breadth of empirical data is used to explore various dimensions of social exclusion and inclusion, including Australian, Canadian and European data. While all the articles explore different aspects of social exclusion, common themes emerge. All authors note the multi-dimensional nature of social exclusion. The importance of social networks in providing information and advice to the integration of young people is also identified. Common to all articles though is the firm belief that national governments should be centrally involved in tackling social exclusion. As currently formulated, the extent of government commitment to rural development programmes is questionable. These programmes tend to be short-term with insecure and limited funding. At any rate, the capacity of local partnerships to address issues of social exclusion is restricted. The responsibility for economic, social and civic inclusion of citizens rests primarily with national governments.

Australia's metropolitan cities have undergone significant social, economic and demographic change over the past several decades. In terms of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage these changes, which are often associated with globalisation, wider economic and technological restructuring, the changing demographics of the population and shifts in public policy are not evenly dispersed across cities, but represent a range of often contrasting outcomes. The current paper develops a typology of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage for locations across Australian metropolitan cities. More specifically, the paper takes a range of Australian Bureau of Statistics data and uses a model-based approach with clustering of data represented by a parameterised Gaussian mixture model and discriminant analysis utilised to consider the differences between the clusters. These clusters form the basis of a typology representing the range of socio-economic and demographic outcomes at the local community level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, social housing in Australia operated as a springboard for social mobility. For many working families, public housing tenancy was an opportunity to save for a house purchase deposit. Latterly, tenant exits from public to private housing have declined to very low levels. This has raised concerns about systemic barriers to residential and social mobility for social renters, and about the consequent longer waiting times for applicants in need of social housing. Drawing on administrative data collected by social housing providers in NSW and Victoria, and in-depth interviews with 95 former and current social housing tenants in both states, this paper examines tenant attitudes, intentions and motivations as regards future house-moves. We argue that the primary disincentives to exit relate to affordability and security of tenure in private rental, rather than factors related to the social housing system itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Within the context of economic and social change in rural Australia, this paper identifies four structural dimensions of non-metropolitan communities that are shown to influence a range of areal and socio-demographic characteristics. The analysis shows that such influence is essentially maintained whether the social catchments forming the database are subdivided by State or by an equivalent number of landscape types. Also, although the dimensions influence both the urban and dispersed elements of the communities, the strength of the relationships is substantially greater if those elements are considered as a symbiotic whole. Throughout, net rural local density (as opposed to gross density) is shown to be a consistently important dimension of rural communities in relatively sparsely settled lands such as those of south-eastern Australia, supported by the important subsidiary influence of relative settlement dispersal and town size. The paper concludes with a discussion of the processes involved in the impact of those structural dimensions upon rural society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins by considering the Australian evidence on intergenerational social and economic mobility in the context of the international literature. Recent evidence from the Youth in Focus project is used to highlight the effects of growing up in socio-economic disadvantage on a range of outcomes for young Australians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current approaches to rural community development in Australia provide for limited government intervention. Such intervention is usually housed within programmes that seek to build the internal capacity of communities to achieve long term socio-economic sustainability. A fundamental implementation strategy for capacity building has been developing local leadership. The underlying assumption of this approach is that good leadership will result in existing resources being mobilised for a more sustainable function and new resources attracted. What though is good leadership in terms of building the capacity of rural communities to develop sustainable socio-economic futures? This paper compares the conceptualisation of leadership within rural development policies and leadership training programmes with the nature of local leadership as it exists in on-ground community building projects. From an in-depth review of the role and nature of local leadership within six Australian rural communities it was found that local leadership could result in improved adaptive capacity if the leadership is similar in nature to Burn's (1978 ) transformational model of leadership. Within policy, local leadership was most often conceptualised as being similar to this transformational model. However, rural leadership training programmes tended to conceptualise leadership as a top-down process, similar to Burn's (1978 ) transactional model. While this study of leadership within rural communities revealed that transactional skills, as taught in leadership training programmes, were important for successful project management, such skills did not necessarily result in improved community adaptive capacity. It is suggested that, while transactional leadership can have an important role in influencing the development of rural communities, greater attention needs to be given to developing strategies to support transformational leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Australia's population ages, housing is going to become an increasingly important issue for policy makers, developers, housing providers and service providers. Not only will there be demands for increasing numbers of houses but also increasing demands for greater choice, variety and greater expectations about the quality of that housing and the type of facilities associated with, or in close proximity to, that housing. Research emphasises an array of demographic, social, economic, personal and community factors along with cohort effects that influence the housing and living arrangement choices of older people. A clear understanding of these factors and the way they may interact in influencing housing decisions and transitions is essential if planning is to be effective. This paper provides an overview of our current understanding of the influences on the housing careers of the older population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current decision-making in natural resource use and management aims at delivering ecologically-sustainable development to achieve conservation and economic benefits. The process of guiding natural resource use requires the integration of social, economic and biophysical information on which to base management decisions. This paper discusses the integration of socio-economic information for natural resource management (NRM) planning and decision-making in the Australian context. A comprehensive resource of socio-economic data is the Census, which is undertaken every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the whole of Australia. Unfortunately there are qualitative and quantitative issues stemming from the use of ABS census data maps for NRM decision-making, as they are at a different scale to and the boundaries do not coincide with biophysical information. These issues include the variable shape of collection districts, the use of enumerated data for population-based statistics, the large size of collection districts in low populated areas, and the averaging of socio-economic information over the collection districts. Examples highlight these issues and show a way forwards in improving data integration, which includes simple spatial overlay methods and regression modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the philosophical question: ‘why rehabilitate urban river systems?’ within an Australian context. Rehabilitation of river systems has become an important objective of many local, state and national governments around the world, who allocate substantial investment into various river projects. An understanding of the various factors influencing stream condition and potential rehabilitation options is essential in order to determine how the process is undertaken, and how success is measured. This paper examines the triple bottom line (economic, social and environmental) factors that influence decisionmaking with respect to urban stream rehabilitation and management and considers their relative value and importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia's large regional cities and towns display wide variation in how they are adjusting to the socio-economic transitions occurring in Australia. That variation is exposed using a multi-variate model analysing performance on a range of socio-economic variables over the decade 1986 to 1996 for 122 cities and towns with populations of 10 000 and above at the 1996 census. Those places are classified into seven clusters of community performance reflecting opportunity/vulnerability, and their spatial patterns are mapped. The resulting framework is then used to show how the recent geography of the socio-economic performance of the large regional cities and towns has a distinctive selectivity and contributes to opportunity in some places and the vulnerable performance of others. The influence of that selectivity can be seen in the mismatched geographic patterns evident from an analysis of shares of national population and employment change, investment in non-residential construction, levels of welfare dependency, and the ratio between household income tax generation and transfer benefits received. The paper uses the insights drawn from that analysis to pose questions suggesting the need to rethink national policy perspectives for addressing change in non-metropolitan Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until recently the objectives of tropical river management were narrowly construed: the development imperative drove resource policy. During recent decades, community attitudes to river and water management have changed considerably and the national program of water reform, the National Water Initiative, is accelerating alterations to the way that water is used, managed and priced. A broader range of values and imperatives is now influencing water resource management policy. Not least is the concern over the ecological impacts and economic inefficiencies of the large-scale hydrological schemes that once excited the public's imagination. This paper reports on a recent study of social and economic values of tropical rivers conducted by the authors for an Australian statutory research and development corporation. The study shows that the values associated with tropical rivers have changed and diversified over time with growing societal awareness of the contribution made by unregulated, healthy river systems to human wellbeing and cultural identity. As a consequence of substantial social change, tropical river management must now contend with a more complex array of societal values and water management objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses several debates surrounding the reproduction of socio-economic inequality: (i) the persistent inequality thesis, which maintains that despite the increases in educational participation socio-economic inequalities in education have not declined; (ii) the related thesis of maximally maintained inequality, which proposes that socio-economic inequalities decline only when participation levels for the most privileged socio-economic group approach saturation levels; (iii) the meritocracy debate on the importance of ability vis-à-vis socio-economic background and changes in its influence over time; and (iv) the effect of policy changes on socio-economic inequalities in education. These issues are addressed using data from six Australian youth cohorts born between 1961 and the mid-1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of parental expectations in determining children's higher education participation is important in understanding both participation and potential policy responses. Using a nationally representative longitudinal survey of Australian households, providing repeat observations on expectations for individual children, this study extends the literature in several respects. First, it examines the adaptation of parental expectations over a 4‐year time frame. Second, it looks at how parental expectations for school children are associated with actual higher education outcomes in the future. Third, the longitudinal aspect of the dataset permits more robust analyses of factors that shape parental expectations. The findings indicate that parental expectations of their children's attendance at university are generally stable across time. Perceptions of children's academic achievement at school are shown to be the key influence in shaping parents' expectations, and behavioural issues at school adversely affect expectations. Australian parents from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds were more likely to form positive expectations of university participation by their children, consistent with studies from other countries. A more nuanced picture of the formation of expectations for sole‐parent mothers is also presented. Positive effects of parental education and children's enrolment in a private school on parents' expectations, over and above any effect on school achievement, highlight these socioeconomic factors as potential causal channels for the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current debate in Indigenous affairs in Australia often involves the assertion that the last 30 years has been a period of policy failure. This article examines trends across a number of socioeconomic outcomes for Indigenous Australians from the 1967 referendum to the present, using census data. Overall, there has been steady, although not spectacular improvement in outcomes over time. These improvements are especially marked for education, which was coming from an exceptionally low base. This finding is somewhat at odds with the common perception of the ‘failure’ of Indigenous policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the state of commercial development and resource management on Indigenous land in remote Australia. Indigenous landowners control significant assets--over one million square kilometres of land--often with substantial resource rights and income earning potential. The inactivity and missed opportunities on the Indigenous estate are of such magnitude as to represent a major risk both for Indigenous landowning communities, in terms of their future economic and social well-being, and for national and international interests in terms of ecological vulnerability. The article explores the role of government as risk manager in such circumstances and outlines the principles that might underpin any intervention program targeted to the commercial development of Indigenous land. Using the analytical framework for profit-related loans and elements of an existing venture capital support programme, the Innovation Investment Fund Program, we outline the hypothetical skeleton of a new investment scheme to assist development and natural resource management on the Indigenous estate. Our proposal can be conceptualised as a profit-related loan scheme or as a form of capped public investment. It seeks to address key elements of the market failure that exists in relation to financing development on remote Indigenous land, provides incentives for greater private sector investment, and ensures that commercial and social risks are shared equitably between government, private sector investors and Indigenous-owned corporations to avoid problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports some of the results from a recent study which, among other things, developed and costed low cost budgets for a range of Australian households. A budget standard rep- resents what is needed, in terms of goods, services and activities, to achieve a particular standard of living and what that costs in a particular place and time. A low cost budget standard is one designed to meet basic needs at a frugal level while still allowing social and economic participation consistent with community expectations. The low cost budget standard estimates for households living in Sydney in February 1997 are somewhat higher than the Henderson poverty line, partly a reflection of the high cost of housing in Sydney, but also a consequence of the low cost standard itself being above a poverty standard. In spite of this, the budget standard relativities for different households provide an estimate of the relative needs of Australian households in the 1990s which could replace the current much-criticised equivalence scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mean-variance framework is applied to Australian household financial portfolios in order to provide estimates of relative risk aversion in the economy. Controlling for various socio-economic characteristics, we explore whether risk aversion heterogeneity is a function of wealth heterogeneity. In contrast to most studies, we find evidence of very high risk aversion amongst the majority of households of poor households but vastly lower risk aversion amongst the high percentiles in the wealth distribution. Applying a first differences model across three survey waves spanning 2002 to 2010, we find that risk tolerance increases significantly with wealth. Risk tolerance is positively associated with mortgage payments, but rental payments have no relationship. In addition, we found no evidence that holding a university education has any discernible impact on risk aversion. Lastly, we present some preliminary findings as to the impact of financial advice on observed risk aversion. Financial advice is found to accentuating risk aversion, particularly amongst the wealthiest households. The findings have potential implications for the distribution of wealth in Australia that has received renewed interest recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Human cytomegalovirus ( CMV) is the leading infectious cause of congenital infection in developed countries. Globally, CMV seropositivity has been associated with low socio-economic status ( SES); however, Australian data are lacking. Therefore, we examined the association between SES and CMV seroprevalence in children and pregnant women. Methods Three groups were examined: 1, a prospective cohort of Australian children aged 0-15 years ( n = 220); 2, a clinic-based sample of pregnant women ( n = 778); and 3, a case series of infants and children ( n = 219) with symptomatic congenital CMV infection. SES was determined using a postcode-based score from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.Group 1 was recruited from endocrinology clinics and follow-up at Prince of Wales Hospital and Children's Hospital at Westmead. Group 2 was recruited at the Royal Hospital for Women. Congenitally infected infants were identified through the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit. Results CMV seroprevalence among all children was 20% (95% confidence interval ( CI) 15-25%), and there was no association with SES ( P = 0.58). Seroprevalence among pregnant women was 57% (53-60%), and higher rates of CMV seropositivity were associated with lower SES ( P < 0.001). More congenital CMV cases were reported in the highest socio-economic groups (55%) than the lowest (9%) ( P < 0.001). Conclusions A marked socio-economic gradient in CMV seroprevalence is evident in Australian pregnant women and cases of congenital CMV but not in unselected Australian children. These findings highlight the importance of a community-wide approach to CMV awareness and the potential for hygienic measures to reduce the burden of congenital CMV in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study to investigate variation and to quantify socioeconomic inequalities in the uptake of primary bariatric surgery in an obese population in Australia. The prospective population-based cohort study involved 49,364 individuals aged 45-74 years with body mass index (BMI) of at least 30 kilograms/meter2. The study finds that the procedure is cost-effective in treating severe obesity and associated illnesses and that large socioeconomic inequalities are apparent.

Introduction. Area-level indicators of socio-economic variation are frequently included in models of individual health outcomes. Area disadvantage is linearly related to smoking prevalence, but its relation to cessation outcomes is less well understood. Aims. To explore the relationship between area-level disadvantage and prospective data on smoking cessation. Design and Methods. The Australian cohort of the International Tobacco Control Four-Country Survey (N = 3503) was used to prospectively examine the contribution of area-level socio-economic disadvantage to predicting three important smoking-cessation outcomes: making a quit attempt, achieving 1 month abstinence and achieving 6 month abstinence from smoking, while controlling for individual-level socio-economic indicators and other individual-level covariates related to smoking cessation. Results. Only two independent associations were observed between socio-economic disadvantage and cessation outcomes. Area-level disadvantage was related to 1 month abstinence in a non-linear fashion, and the individual experience of smoking-induced deprivation was associated with a lower likelihood of making quit attempts. Discussion. Despite the documented higher prevalence of smoking among the more disadvantaged and in more disadvantaged areas, socio-economic disadvantage was not consistently related to making quit attempts, nor to medium-term success. Nevertheless, indirect effects of disadvantage, like its impact on psychological distress, cannot be ruled out, and considering smokers' individual psychosocial circumstances is likely to aid cessation efforts. Conclusion. Socio-economic disadvantage, particularly at the area level, poses few direct barriers to smoking cessation.[Partos TR, Borland R, Siahpush M. Socio-economic disadvantage at the area level poses few direct barriers to smoking cessation for Australian smokers: Findings from the International Tobacco Control Australian cohort survey. Drug Alcohol Rev 2012;31:653-663] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of a pooled analysis of the socioeconomic disparities in stroke rates and outcome in Australia and New Zealand. The researchers analysed the pooled data for 3077 patients with incident stroke from three population-based studies in Perth, Melbourne, and Auckland between 1995 and 2003. The results of the analysis indicate that people living in areas that are relatively more deprived in socioeconomic terms have higher rates of stroke.

This article evaluates the Australian tax-transfer system in an international comparative perspective, discussing the distributional profile of Australian transfers compared with those in other Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, and assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Australian system in terms of impacts on income inequality and providing assistance to poor households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the study on children's social, economic and cultural environment contributions in the economy of Australia. The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) describes the impact of the children's early experiences on their later development and the mapping of the diverse pathways that children follow as they develop. It also provides the opportunity to identify the long-term consequences of policy for children and their family.

Urban growth is a major theme in economic development and a policy imperative for developed countries that seek to create sustainable cities. We argue that the past weighs heavily on the ability of societies to sustainably manage urban environments. The policy implications of urban history are revealed in comparisons of cities across times and between places. The special issue presents some of the best recent work on the economic and social history of Australian cities. We aim to encourage historians to incorporate urban variables into studies of historical processes and to persuade policymakers to consider historical trends in their analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims A large number of studies have found links between alcohol outlet densities and assault rates in local areas. This study tests a variety of specifications of this link, focusing in particular on the possibility of a non-linear relationship. Design Cross-sectional data on police-recorded assaults during high alcohol hours, liquor outlets and socio-demographic characteristics were obtained for 223 postcodes in Melbourne, Australia. These data were used to construct a series of models testing the nature of the relationship between alcohol outlet density and assault, while controlling for socio-demographic factors and spatial auto-correlation. Four types of relationship were examined: a normal linear relationship between outlet density and assault, a non-linear relationship with potential threshold or saturation densities, a relationship mediated by the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood and a relationship which takes into account the effect of outlets in surrounding neighbourhoods. Findings The model positing non-linear relationships between outlet density and assaults was found to fit the data most effectively. An increasing accelerating effect for the density of hotel (pub) licences was found, suggesting a plausible upper limit for these licences in Melbourne postcodes. Conclusions The study finds positive relationships between outlet density and assault rates and provides evidence that this relationship is non-linear and thus has critical values at which licensing policy-makers can impose density limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital, since Putnam's 1993 work, has captured the imagination of policy-makers the world over, and Australia is no exception. In 2005 the Department of Victorian Communities launched its Actions for Community Strengthening policy statement, which draws heavily on social capital theory. This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of the government's policy and critiques its failure to deal adequately with the causal relationship between social capital and its supposed community benefits. The article then seeks to isolate the missing factors through a look at recent research on volunteerism and argues that the institution of collaborative/interactive governance needs to be underpinned by sound socio-economic reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on medical workforce planning in Australia. The question of whether non-doctor inputs are complements or substitutes to the medical-care production function is an issue in the discussion about policy change. Another issue is how the productivity of the physician workforce can be improved. Topics include factors contributing to the increased demand for health services, labor supply trends in Australia and Great Britain, forecasting demand for workers, and the elements in supply estimation such as skill mix, pay, and migration trends.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a federation which was established on January 1, 1901. It consists of six states, all previously separate British colonies--New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the sparsely populated Northern Territory which now has a territorial government elected by its own citizens. The main functions of local government in Australia are to provide and maintain roads, street lighting, rubbish collection and disposal, maternal and child health care centers, libraries, and recreational facilities. It may also subsidize certain educational and counseling services, although education is not regarded as primarily a local responsibility. Most estimates of site revenue fall short of current levels of revenue. But this need not be a cause of alarm. One would be hard put to argue with the contention that, under a Georgist economy, the need for so much revenue would be considerably reduced (e.g., welfare payments). While in Australia there is a significant measure of site revenue and also a sound basis for its implementation (i.e., competent valuation, etc.), the old adage about the price of liberty being eternal vigilance is as apposite as ever. The retention of past achievements and the achievement of further extensions unfortunately require hard effort, as the forces opposing socio-economic justice are far from inactive.

This article focuses on processes of agrifood restructuring in Australia and New Zealand. The author analyzes the roles and relationships of the agrifood industries in the Australasia region during a period of major change. The researchers were drawn from a wide range of disciplines, but shared a common interest in the analysis of agricultural change and the impacts of current transformations at a number of levels, global, regional, and local. Unlike the United States, with its land grant colleges and freestanding departments of rural sociology, Australia and New Zealand have put only limited resources into rural-based sociological research, concentrating instead on extension and agricultural economics. The former has gone through a crisis of identity and is much reduced force in an increasingly privatized, "user-pays" environment, while the latter is generally an extremely conservative disciple, marked by theoretical rigidity, which continues to leave people and social relations out of its mathematical models.

Economists have played a powerful role in shaping modern Australia. Drawing on my experience as an academic economist and an economic policymaker, I outline ten principles to guide economists seeking to maximise their impact. These are to (i) Focus on well‐being, not just dollars; (ii) Think comparative advantage; (iii) Ignore sunk costs; (iv) Optimise, subject to constraints; (v) Use the best evidence; (vi) Consider expected value; (vii) Think in magnitudes, not just in signs; (viii) Channel a libertarian; (ix) Remember equity; and (x) Incentives matter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]